Chocolate and hazelnut revival for a flat schmalzler

You'll need Tick as you go

• The old schmalzler
• 3 tbsp grain alcohol
• 1 tbsp dark rum
• ½ tsp natural chocolate extract
• ¼ tsp natural hazelnut extract

Equipment

Method

1. Step 1 of 9Mix the alcohol, rum and extracts in a bowl. If one note is clearly missing from the old snuff, add a little extra of that extract, but go easy.
2. Step 2 of 9Work the liquid into the snuff until it's like stiff cookie dough. Mash it rather than just stirring, so no dry clumps are left.
3. Step 3 of 9Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it for 10 to 30 minutes.
4. Step 4 of 9Heat the oven to its lowest setting, usually 150 to 170°F. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment, breaking up the clumps.
5. Step 5 of 9Bake it for five minutes at a time, breaking it up and spreading it out between rounds, until it's like an over-moist schmalzler.
6. Step 6 of 9Push it through a coarse sieve back onto the baking sheet. Bake in three-minute rounds, stirring between them, until it's granular and only slightly moist.
7. Step 7 of 9Take a pinch. If it needs more flavour, mash in a few drops of extract or rum, pass it through the coarse sieve twice and bake for another three minutes.
8. Step 8 of 9Rub it through a fine sieve onto the baking sheet and keep baking in three-minute rounds, stirring in between, until the texture stops changing.
9. Step 9 of 9Let it cool, then jar it.

Notes

Use natural extracts, not supermarket baking flavourings, which don't always smell the way they taste and can have a chemical edge. Avoid vanilla, which drowns a schmalzler's fermented character. Chocolate and hazelnut echo it.